Top Rung Brewing Company celebrates their first anniversary, releases new beers

Lacey, Washington is still hugging it out with Top Rung Brewing Co. A year ago, Thurston County firefighters Casey Sobol and Jason Stoltz opened their brewery in Lacey's Hawks Prairie neighborhood.

Over the course of the year, the brewery released 11 beers from their initial three - Hosechaser, Irons IPA and Scout Stout - launched Thirsty Thursday Randall nights (my favorite is their My Dog Scout Stout run through coffee beans and chocolate nibs), hired sales representative "Brew Dad" Mike Besser that resulted in wider distribution, began bottling their beers, increased their taproom hours and launched a discount program for their "family" of service members - fellow firefighters, police officers and the military. The career firefighters - 21 years for Sobol and eight for Stoltz - celebrate their first year in business beginning Friday, although they began scheming in 2011. It became real when the duo's Hosechaser Blonde grabbed the Dick's Brewing "Beer for a Cure" homebrewing contest top prize in 2012 - and they began to shadow Dick's brewer Parker Penley.

Today, Top Rung is a 10-barrel production brewery with a large, firefighting-theme, family-friendly tasting room at the brewery.

Top Rung has titled their one-year anniversary celebration "Beerbalation," running April 10-12.

Saturday, Stoltz releases two more Top Rung beers. Part of their pilot batch series - a tasting room only program - the Flashover Red is a derivative of their 360 Red Ale, but with the kick of serrano, anaheim, jalapeno and habanero peppers balanced with vanilla bean and oak chips. "This beer was designed to provide a beer with a good pepper aroma upfront with some subtle heat in the back," according to Sobol. Stoltz will also release their seasonal Good Jake Cascadian Dark Ale with a big dark, malty and hoppy aroma and hints of coffee and chocolate notes throughout.

Top Rung Brewing's Beerbalation will run 2-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.They'll have a special commemorative glasses available for $7.50 each, while supplies last.

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